Edward Alfred Pollard, The lost cause; a new Southern history of the War of the Confederates ... Drawn from official sources and approved by the most distinguished Confederate leaders.

[571] candidate less committed to the coercive policy, and less implicated in the war. This struggle did not turn upon a sufficiently tangible issue to give it importance. As a Union party, the great body of tile opposition party was committed to the war as the only practicable means of preserving and restoring the Union. Gen. McClellan was known to be earnestly desirous of peace, and of peace on the single and simple basis of a restoration of the Union under the Constitution as it stood. This was the only ground on which the conservative party could go before the people in the canvass, and hope to succeed in the election. It would have been vain to expect success upon the principles of the very few Democrats and conservatives who believed, and believed correctly, that the war had been unrighteous and iniquitous in its leading object, no less than in the manner in which it had been conducted. The great body of the opposition concurred with Gen. McClellan in the opinion that secession was unwarrantable and iniquitous, and that it ought to be resisted by all the power of the Union. They considered, therefore, that the war was righteous in its object, and only iniquitous in the manner in which it had been prosecuted. Reflecting these views held by the mass of his party, and having no competitor for the nomination favoured by them, he was nominated with little if any opposition when the vote came on in the body of the Convention. Mr. George H. Pendleton was selected as the second candidate on the ticket, in a manner altogether flattering and creditable to that staunch and consistent defender of the Constitution.

The Convention unanimously adopted a platform declaring their unswerving fidelity to the Union; calling for a convention of all the States looking to the restoration of peace on the basis of a Federal Union of all the States; denouncing the military interference which had been practised in recent elections in the Border States; declaring that the aim and object of the Democratic party were to preserve the Federal Union and rights of the States unimpaired; reprobating the system of usurpation, tyranny, and despotism which the Administration had wantonly and systematically pursued throughout the war; reprehending the Government's cruel neglect of the Union prisoners of war; and tendering their sympathy and pledging their future protection to the soldiers and sailors of the army and navy of the United States.

Gen. McClellan's letter of acceptance soon after appeared, and by its pacific tone and conciliatory terms, removed much of the objection which the extreme peace men of his party had felt to his nomination. Affirming the necessity of preserving the Union entire in the most cogent terms; he declared, that its preservation “was the sole avowed object for which the war was commenced;” that “it should have been conducted for that object only ;” that it should have been conducted on the principles of conciliation and compromise; that the re-establishment of the Union must be